


Where the Lovelight Gleams

by winnerstick



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-02
Updated: 2012-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-20 02:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/580055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winnerstick/pseuds/winnerstick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite the fact that they were in a crappy studio apartment and barely scraping by as it was, making it look Christmassy was important to Stiles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Lovelight Gleams

                “How is hanging some green shit gonna make it look better?”

                “I’m not done yet,” Stiles responded as he adjusted the garland on the window sill. “It’ll make it look festive. Homey.”

                “Stiles. It’s a one room apartment. With hardly any furniture.”

                Stiles sighed and let go of the greenery to give Derek an exasperated look. He stepped away from the wall and looked at it a long, long time with his arms crossed in front of his chest, not saying a word. While he did this, Stiles heard Derek get up a long time before he felt the other male’s arm pressed lightly against his own as Derek, too, considered the decoration.

                “It’s our first Christmas together. Really together and in our own place. We should decorate and make it look like it’s actually Christmas, instead of just another day. C’mon, it’ll be fun. You might even enjoy yourself.”

                Stiles glanced at Derek just in time to catch the tail-end of an eye-roll while Derek’s shoulders slumped in concession. The older man stepped away from the wall and Stiles and toward the small bag of decorations that Stiles had scraped together money to get. He lifted it up and sifted through the contents, his lost and confused look only increasing in intensity as he noticed each new thing. It wasn’t much, but it was about all Stiles had been able to afford, keeping in mind that he still had to get gifts throughout the rest of the month.

                “What are we even going to do with this? Where are we going to put these?”

                Stiles’ face lit up and he took the bag from Derek with a giddy gait. “Don’t worry about it! I have a plan for everything!”

                Decorating look a lot longer than Stiles had really expected it to. He didn’t get much, and what he did get really was cheap and looked to be on its last limb, but it took almost an hour for them to get everything placed just so. Stiles could blame that all on Derek and the fact that he got distracted every few minutes with something he thought was more interesting than humoring Stiles, i.e., slipping his hands up Stiles’ shirt and trying to convince him to save the decorating for later. It didn’t work. Well, it did a couple of times, and Stiles ended up with a few hickeys resulting from the brief, but intense, make-out sessions before he brought them back on track.

                If he’s being honest, the modest decorations don’t do much to add to the whole place, considering he really only got artificial garland and a few Santa and snowmen things here and there. It didn’t exactly scream “Christmas” to him, but it would have to do until a point in the future when they could afford more. Living in New York wasn’t cheap, and despite both of them having fairly decent jobs, it was hard to afford the steep cost of rent to live in the city that never sleeps. It was alright for now, though, because it really just… fit them. They were currently living in a shitty apartment together with really no furniture besides the necessities. The more expensive decorations would have to wait for another time. Maybe they could even go about making a makeshift tree for the two of them, just to hold the place until they were able to afford an actual one. They didn’t need to go extravagant, but Stiles would be lying if he said he was absolutely over the moon over what they had before them/

                “Hey, Stiles, what _is_ this?”

                Stiles was pulled out of his thought-tangent by Derek’s voice by the doorway, touching a relatively large box sitting on the floor. It was brown and covered in a lighter brown tape and there really wasn’t anything special about it, except for the fact that it had an overly large tag with Stiles’ name written in the familiar handwriting of his father. That, and the fact that it had been delivered two days ago and Stiles had yet to open it.

                “A package from my dad.”

                Derek glared at Stiles in a way that screamed _No shit, Sherlock_ , and nudged the package with his foot. “I know what it _is_ , but what’s in it? Why haven’t you opened it?”

                Stiles shrugged and went to the kitchen for a knife. He hesitated a moment, looking at Derek, then walked over to the package and got down on his knees in front of it. He paused again, just staring at the tape, then slid his knife through it, tearing it with quite a bit more difficulty than he would have hoped for. Really, there was nothing smooth about the way that knife cut the tape. It took way more effort on Stiles’ part than he had thought, but he eventually got it open and pushed all of the flaps out of the way.

                “Thought so,” Stiles muttered as he leafed his way through the contents of the box.

Inside were pictures, Christmas decorations, and a few gifts. The decorations were a lot more of what Stiles had in mind when he first envisioned decorating their apartment; much more Christmassy, rather than wintery. Each one had come from the Stilinski house and he could tell, just by looking at them, where they had been. Most of them were from the living room, where they really had too much to begin with. Some were from the kitchen. Little Santa figurines (minus the ones Stiles had made and the one that Stiles had broken when he was six years old), a magnetic countdown that Stiles had made a point of keeping up to date every morning as soon as he woke up (no matter how old he got), and the ornaments that he had gotten every year, aside from his “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament. There was even an envelope with “ _For a tree_ ” scrawled on it. He wasn’t surprised that his dad had sent these. Mr. Stilinski had always complained that they had too many decorations, anyway, and had always told Stiles that once he moved out, he was going to take at least half of them with him. He wasn’t really expecting to get them this year, though. He expected the box to be sent once they were in a house, not a dinky little apartment that the Sheriff had made quite clear, on multiple occasions, he hated.

                He wasn’t prepared for this, not really. He wasn’t prepared for the memories to come rushing back, especially when he looked at the pictures. His mother loved Christmas. She had made a point to go all-out every year and decorate their house to the nines, no matter how much time and effort it took every year. Most of the pictures featured her and a much younger Stiles. Baking cookies, decorating, opening presents… his dad had included pictures of everything. Since her death, they had kept up all the same traditions, out of respect for her. Every year except for that first year, they had decorated their house in exactly the same way, and even added to the decorations, like Stiles’ mom had done, even though she swore she would never buy another thing to pack away and put up every year. That first year, Christmas had felt wrong without it all. The elephant in the room had grown to the size of a blue whale, which only made the month that much harder for the grieving family. Now this was Stiles’ first Christmas away from home, and though they had plans to visit the Sheriff only a few days after the holiday, it felt just like that first Christmas after his mom’s death, when something was so out of place and wrong.

                He didn’t even realize he was crying until he felt Derek sit beside him and wrap an arm around his waist. Stiles stared down at the picture that was growing blurry before him and leaned into his boyfriend. They stayed that way for a long time, sitting together on the floor in front of the door in complete silence.

                “She loved Christmas,” Stiles mumbled long after the tears had stopped falling down his cheeks. “She always had way too many decorations. Our house was impressive. You should’ve seen it. She knew just how to do it all just right.”


End file.
